Jan. 31 (UPI) — Six anti-abortion activists have been convicted on felony charges over orchestrating a blockade of a Tennessee reproductive healthcare clinic in 2021.
A federal jury convicted each of the six defendants of a felony conspiracy against rights and a Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act offense. Sentencing has been scheduled for July 2, when they each face up to 10 and a half years’ imprisonment, three years’ supervised release and fines totally $260,000.
“These defendants are being held accountable for unlawfully obstructing access to reproductive health services,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
The defendants — Chester Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Calvin Zastrow, Coleman Boyd, Paul Vaughn and Dennis Green — were indicted in October 2022 along with five others for their involvement in the March 5, 2021, blockade of the Carafem Health Center in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., which is a suburb of Nashville.
According to the indictment and evidence produced trial, the blockade was planned in advance, with Gallagher promoting it online as part of a series of anti-abortion events they had scheduled for that March week.
Many of those charged had traveled to Tennessee to participate in the blockade, which Gallagher had live-streamed online and had described as a “rescue.”
Prosecutors said the activists had blocked the clinic’s doors and prevented a patient and an employee from entering the facility. During the livestream, members of the group were seen trying to engage with a patient and her companion while one of them described the woman to the audience as a “mom coming to kill her baby.”
Carafem said in a statement Tuesday that the defendants had blocked their center for several hours until their eventual arrests.
“Today, they were found guilty in a jury trial,” it said. “Today was a win for justice.”
Of those convicted Tuesday, Gallagher, Idoni and Zastrow also face similar charges along with five other defendants over blocking Michigan reproductive clinics in 2020 and 2021. They were indicted for the Michigan offenses in February.
“These defendants knowingly chose to violate laws they disagreed with,” U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis said in a statement.
“The jury’s verdict today is a victory for the rule of law in this country and a reminder that we cannot pick and choose which laws we follow.”
